Hiking with my daughter at the wonderful Doan Brook, a hidden gem 10 minutes from my house, I filmed my daughter walking from behind. The video above includes my analysis of her walk.
Her left ankle collapses in a big way and I showed this video in a knee workshop that I offered last week talking about the effect this kind of collapse has on the knee and all other joints up the chain of the body.
The cool thing about the video, from my perspective, is what happens halfway through when I ask her to lift her toes to engage the muscles of her lower leg.
The arches of the feet lift and drop on the demand of these muscles (Fibularis, tibialis anterior and posterior, gastrocnemius, soleus) and if she can develop these muscles correctly the ankle should be able to develop support.
I am so interested in hiking, which I do in my barefoot sneakers, because of the demands the shifting terrain makes on the muscles listed above and through the whole body.
With 26 bones in the feet and 33 possible articulations through its joints, the more the foot moves, rolls, and adapts the better off the body will be.
I also talk in the video about how I don’t beat my daughter about this too much, nor do I bust my son’s chops about his insane hyperextension of the knees. I basically let them be and sooner or later, as they become more cognizant of the patterns that I point out, they will take it upon themselves to change their musculature.
They are both very athletic and getting stronger by the day so I don’t worry about their eventual ability to rectify these issues.
Of course, I could be making a terrible mistake and should be harping on them to change right now, but as with so many parenting choices, only time will tell how much damage I have inflicted.